Glover looking to close the deal at Quail Hollow

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Lucas Glover shot his second 68 of the week on Saturday to leave himself just two shots off the lead.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Lucas Glover will be the first to tell you he's been in what he calls the "three-round mode" most of this year.

Glover will be playing well, but he always seems to throw in that 73 or 74 when everyone else is shooting 67 or 68. Another top 10 -- or more importantly, that elusive second PGA TOUR win -- vanishes in the process.

Glover's had his three solid rounds again this week at the Quail Hollow Championship. He flirted with the top of the leaderboard throughout Saturday's third round, making three birdies, an eagle and dropping just one shot to par on the final hole in that 68.

At 9 under, Glover will start the final 18 holes tied with Tiger Woods and George McNeill, two strokes off the lead held by Zach Johnson. He's cautiously optimistic that he can break out of that pesky "three-round mode" and anxious to see what happens.

"I'll say I've made less mistakes this week than I have in the past few weeks when I had those three out of four or two out of four or whatever," Glover said. "That's what you try to do, especially on a course like this, limit your mistakes and pick your opportunities and try to go get them.

"I'm going to try to break the trend tomorrow."

Glover will be playing in Sunday's final group with Zach Johnson, teeing off at 1:40 p.m. ET. He appeared headed for a date with the world No. 1 in the penultimate pairing until McNeill bogeyed the final hole and fell back into the tie at 9 under.

"To be in the final round playing with him, you know you're doing something right," McNeill would later say.

Woods may be the greatest frontrunner the game has ever seen, winning 44 of 47 times when he's had the 54-hole lead. He came from one stroke back to win the 2007 tournament at Quail Hollow.

"He's not too bad on the lead or one back or six back or whatever," Glover said in his deep Southern drawl. "But it just speaks to his talent and his confidence more than anything. Mentally he's as good as he is physically."

Woods' presence on the leaderboard admittedly is hard to overlook. At the same time, there's a big opportunity for Glover and the rest of the players in contention.

"Well, the right answer is there's 73 other guys playing," Glover said. "The thinking is you've got to beat him to win. That's just (reality. But) it's a good position to be in if one of us can pull it out. He was in the field and he was playing good. That makes it even better."

Glover started the third round at 5 under but jumped into the lead when he hit a 4-iron to 12 feet for eagle -- and a "confidence boost" he called it -- at the seventh hole. Eight pars later, he rolled in a 6-footer at the 16th hole to get to 10 under and back on top, before missing the green at the 18th on the way to bogey.

"I played well, very pleased," Glover said. "Just one mistake on the last. ... (The eagle) kind of got things going. ... But I had to hang on for a while after that. I started missing some greens. But (I) got up and down and then birdied 16 and had a pretty good opportunity to make 4 on the last and didn't do it."

Glover was an All-American at Clemson and was inducted into the Tigers' athletic hall of fame two years ago. He can be hard on himself, though, and he's well-past ready to put an end to his victory drought since his 2005 breakthrough at 98 events.

"First one is the toughest and second one is probably the second toughest," Glover said. "They're all hard. You see Tiger has won however many he's won, he looks dead beat tired whenever he finishes. That's because of his concentration and the grind that it really is to win."

Glover, who grew up 90 minutes away in Greenville, S.C., should have plenty of support on Sunday. He has something of a comfort zone at Quail Hollow, where he's had two top 10s, including a tie for fourth in 2006, too.

"They've got a lot of right to left holes out there," Glover said. "That suits my eye, obviously. Yeah, I've had good rounds here, I've had bad ones, but I try to remember the good ones a little more. It's close to the house, so it's a fun week."

Sunday has the opportunity to be really fun.